Double booked cruise

[Crusin-Suzan]

We have a 12 day cruise booked in April but now found another we may want to go on!   Much longer and much more $$$!   Can we book all at once until we decide?

[canadarocks]

Until Final Payment you can have as many cruises booked as you want. Just realize that you will need to put a deposit down for any that you want to pre-book. Or, at least, put a hold on any that you are interested in. The hold usually lasts about 5 days I believe. 

[ontheweb]

16 hours ago, canadarocks said:

Until Final Payment you can have as many cruises booked as you want. Just realize that you will need to put a deposit down for any that you want to pre-book. Or, at least, put a hold on any that you are interested in. The hold usually lasts about 5 days I believe. 

I thought hold usually lasted 3 days.

[ontheweb]

16 hours ago, Crusin-Suzan said:

We have a 12 day cruise booked in April but now found another we may want to go on!   Much longer and much more $$$!   Can we book all at once until we decide?

This is the kind of thing that has led the cruise lines to more and more go to non-refundable deposits!

[Hlitner]

You can book as many cruises as you please as long as you pay the required deposit.  Unfortunately, there are too many cruisers who do just that which causes all kinds of problems for the cruise lines and other folks that may actually want to take a cruise (horrors) that is fully booked because of folks who book multiple cruises knowing they will cancel just before final payment.

 

This has actually pushed some of the best cruise agencies to charge extra fees to discourage the practice.   Some of this behavior (multiple bookings) means that cruise agencies spend their time (time is money) handling bookings and requests only to have many of these bookings cancelled.  We know two excellent cruise agencies that have been forced to add "cancellation fees" to their booking terms to discourage such behavior.  

 

The multi booking issue has caused many cruise lines (including HAL) to either offer substantially lower prices to those who book with a non-refundable deposit, increase the deposit amounts, or require final payment much further in advance.   One could argue that it is the few folks, who book cruises with the intent of cancelling, that have made things more difficult for the bulk of folks who only book cruises that they actually intend to take.

 

Hank

[Crusin-Suzan]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

You can book as many cruises as you please as long as you pay the required deposit.  Unfortunately, there are too many cruisers who do just that which causes all kinds of problems for the cruise lines and other folks that may actually want to take a cruise (horrors) that is fully booked because of folks who book multiple cruises knowing they will cancel just before final payment.

 

This has actually pushed some of the best cruise agencies to charge extra fees to discourage the practice.   Some of this behavior (multiple bookings) means that cruise agencies spend their time (time is money) handling bookings and requests only to have many of these bookings cancelled.  We know two excellent cruise agencies that have been forced to add "cancellation fees" to their booking terms to discourage such behavior.  

 

The multi booking issue has caused many cruise lines (including HAL) to either offer substantially lower prices to those who book with a non-refundable deposit, increase the deposit amounts, or require final payment much further in advance.   One could argue that it is the few folks, who book cruises with the intent of cancelling, that have made things more difficult for the bulk of folks who only book cruises that they actually intend to take.

 

Hank

Your absolutely right!  Thanks for adjusting my thinking!   Will keep what we have!   

[ontheweb]

5 hours ago, Hlitner said:

You can book as many cruises as you please as long as you pay the required deposit.  Unfortunately, there are too many cruisers who do just that which causes all kinds of problems for the cruise lines and other folks that may actually want to take a cruise (horrors) that is fully booked because of folks who book multiple cruises knowing they will cancel just before final payment.

 

This has actually pushed some of the best cruise agencies to charge extra fees to discourage the practice.   Some of this behavior (multiple bookings) means that cruise agencies spend their time (time is money) handling bookings and requests only to have many of these bookings cancelled.  We know two excellent cruise agencies that have been forced to add "cancellation fees" to their booking terms to discourage such behavior.  

 

The multi booking issue has caused many cruise lines (including HAL) to either offer substantially lower prices to those who book with a non-refundable deposit, increase the deposit amounts, or require final payment much further in advance.   One could argue that it is the few folks, who book cruises with the intent of cancelling, that have made things more difficult for the bulk of folks who only book cruises that they actually intend to take.

 

Hank

LOL, I think I said much the same thing with a lot less words!